This is a very short diary. I just read that Reverand Islamophobe from Florida lost one avenue for foisting his hatred on the world. This happened apparently on Wednesday in the late afternoon, but we're just now hearing about it. Here's hoping the media will lose interest in this man SOON.
Reuters is reporting this:
The obscure Christian pastor who plans to mark the ninth anniversary of September 11 attacks by burning copies of the Koran has had his website pulled from the Internet, the hosting company said on Thursday.
Dan Goodgame, a spokesman for popular web host Rackspace Hosting, said two websites operated by the Dove World Outreach Center, the tiny Gainesville, Florida church run by pastor Terry Jones, were shut down late on Wednesday.
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and yes PBS, won't you follow suit and pull the plug on this guy? Last night I was pretty taken aback when the News Hour reported that Jones halted his book burning because the plans for the construction at 51Park were agreed to be moved elsewhere. At no point did the News Hour report asking anyone actually involved in 51Park whether or not this was true. Really? I asked myself. This one single, hateful, so-called minister with a flock of about 30 church members had the power to relocate the plans for 51Park? It was a stunning and yet unverified claim, passed off as a done deal by the News Hour. I thought the News Hour was above this kind of shoddy reporting. After all, as I said, the Terry Jones Koran-burning call-off was their lead story. Well, in actuality, here's what's really going on (again, thanks to Reuters, with the boldface emphases being mine):
Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Terry Jones, an obscure minister who heads the tiny Dove World Outreach Center church in the Florida town of Gainesville, to urge him not to go ahead, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates had expressed "grave concern" in the brief telephone call with Jones that the Koran burning "would put the lives of our forces at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Jones later told journalists outside his church that he was calling off his plan, which had caused worldwide alarm and raised tensions over this year's anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.
He confirmed Gates' call but linked his decision to what he said was an agreement by Muslim leaders -- which they denied -- to relocate an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned close to the site of the September 11 attacks in New York.
I'm not holding my breath that Jones will be turned down by other webhosting companies, but tonight I'll toast to Rackspace Hosting for doing the right things (#1: having a hate speech policy, and #2: enforcing their hate speech policy).